iris

/\i.ʁis\/ noun

Letters

4 characters

Frequency Rank

#9,504

in French word usage

Misspellings

5

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

iris is aFrenchnoun. It means: Partie colorée de l’œil qui environne la prunelle et qui présente quelquefois des nuances circulaires et concentriques. Pronounced \i.ʁis\. It ranks #9,504 in French word frequency. Often confused with IRL and its.

Key facts for iris
PropertyValue
Headwordiris
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\i.ʁis\
Letters4
Frequency rank#9,504
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of iris in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for iris is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \i.ʁis\. Corpus data places it at rank #9,504 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for iris, with forms such as "iirs", "iriss", and "irris". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "IRL", "its", "IRM", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is iris, spelled I-R-I-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Partie colorée de l’œil qui environne la prunelle et qui présente quelquefois des nuances circulaires et concentriques.
  2. 2
    Système mécanique constitué de plaques assemblées en cercle, permettant par un mécanisme d’obturer l’ouverture centrale progressivement en lui conservant la forme d’un cercle.
  3. 3
    Genre de plantes monocotylédones à fleur de couleur vive et de bonne taille.
  4. 4
    La racine de cet iris dans ses emplois en parfumerie.
  5. 5
    Arc-en-ciel, en référence à Iris dans la mythologie grecque à laquelle ce phénomène est associé.
  6. 6
    Pierre d’iris, iris : Quartz irisé.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: iirs,iriss,irris,irsi,riis

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for iris

Misspelling Variants of "iris"

iirs4iriss5irris5irsi4riis4
Misspelling Variants of "iris"

Frequency rank: #9,504 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "iris"?
"iris" is spelled I-R-I-S. The IPA pronunciation is \i.ʁis\.
What does "iris" mean?
As a noun, "iris" means: Partie colorée de l’œil qui environne la prunelle et qui présente quelquefois des nuances circulaires et concentriques.
What words are commonly confused with "iris"?
"iris" is commonly confused with "IRL", "its", "IRM". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "iris"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "iris" is \i.ʁis\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "iris" come from?
"iris" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter I in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.